BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana men's basketball's penultimate home game is tonight, welcoming the visiting Wisconsin Badgers to Bloomington and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to close out the month of February.
It's been an unkind turn of the calendar for Indiana (14-13, 6-10), who has won just four games in 2024. Only one of those has come in the year's second month, three weeks ago versus Ohio State in the Buckeyes' own building. Even in that contest, it took an almighty collapse and a feverish comeback from IU to save face and walk out of the building with a victory. The Hoosiers have dropped four straight since then.
Wisconsin (18-9, 10-6) didn't enjoy the greatest start to February either. The Badgers rattled off four consecutive losses, including an ugly one to league worst-Michigan in Ann Arbor. Since then, they've emerged victorious in two of the last three contests and enter Bloomington looking to sweep the season series against Indiana.
Before tipoff this evening in Bloomington, take a refreshed look at who's doing what for Wisconsin and preview the matchup:
Quick Hitters
Who?: Indiana (14-13, 6-10 in Big Ten play) vs. Wisconsin (18-9, 10-6 in Big Ten play)
Series History: Indiana leads, 97-81. (Last Meeting: WISC 91, IU 79 on 1/19/24 in Madison)
When?: Tuesday, February 27th, 7:00 p.m. ET
Where?: Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
TV: Peacock: Noah Eagle (play-by-play), Robbie Hummel (color)
Radio: IU Radio Network, Don Fischer (play-by-play), Errek Suhr (analyst), John Herrick
Vegas: Wisconsin -4.5, o/u 141.5
KenPom: Wisconsin 75-70, 69% chance of a Badger victory
Last Meeting
Since then...
Wisconsin is just 4-5 since beating Indiana in the host leg of the home-and-home, falling out of top-25 polls and, potentially, top-four NCAA Tournament seed contention. Now, with Indiana as the first of four to close out the Badgers' regular season campaign, they're fighting to cling onto a two-round bye and earn one of the Big Ten Tournament's top four seeds.
Style-wise, analytics still adore the Badgers. A top-20 offense by adjusted offensive efficiency this season, the incredibly slow pace Wisconsin usually operates at emphasizes getting quality looks and taking the air out of the ball at the same time. A top-50 defense by the same metric helps compliment it, but trends have shown that Wisconsin needs to score at a more consistent basis to win games.
Take that aforementioned four-game skid for example. In those four outcomes, Wisconsin scored just 66.3 points a game. For the season, it is more often around 74.3 points a night.
Scoring more points equating to more wins is not rocket science – that's the whole objective of the game in the first place. But the Badgers have won just four games this year when scoring under 70 points. In half of Wisconsin's eight losses this season, they've failed to reach that threshold.
Indiana was without Kel'el Ware in the first matchup between these two teams, and Wisconsin scored a season-high 91 points in taking advantage of it.
The Hoosiers' defensive effort, which has been lackluster of late, will need to be better to help pick themselves up off the ground and snap the four-game skid. For a team who identifies by its defense first – at least when asked about it – there has been no such recognition in the past few contests.
For Wisconsin, here are the names to know, via KenPom:
And via EvanMiya.com, the best lineups and personnel combinations for Wisconsin this season:
KenPom: Wisconsin 22nd, Indiana 104th
NET Ranking: Wisconsin 22nd, Indiana 107th
Latest ESPN Bracketology has Wisconsin as a five seed in Brooklyn.
Storylines to monitor...
Will Indiana win another game this season?
It's a bleak thought that has to enter the minds of most that have watched this team as this season has progressed: Is there another win left on IU's schedule?
If not, Indiana's campaign would end sheepishly in Minneapolis just a couple of weeks from now, a Wednesday exit from the conference's postseason affair. IU's losing streak to end the year would be nine games long, and the Hoosiers would likely be facing serious changes as to who dons the candy stripes ahead of next season. That's likely already the case, as Mike Woodson has begun accepting the fact that his roster construction swings have consisted of far more misses than hits this year.
To avoid such fate, Indiana has to pick off Wisconsin Tuesday night or one of Maryland, Minnesota or Michigan State in the early stages of March. If the season ended today, IU would be matched up with 13-seed Ohio State in the first game of the first round of the Big Ten tourney. That's a team the Hoosiers have swept in-season, but the challenge in beating a team three times in one year is always stiff.
Indiana has much to fight for still, even if not much is to be gained in terms of this season. Will IU enter the ring with gloves on and ready to fight?
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